Stuffed Beef Tenderloin

Superbowl Sunday has it’s culinary traditions. For me it’s Wings, Doritos, Pigs-in-a-blanket, all things eaten with your hands in the living room. And I had fully intended to fall inline with societal expectations, until my trip to the supermarket. The wings were sold out, but when one door closes, another opens!

In my opinion, good food wins over tradition every time. Tonight would be one of the best meals of the year; the whole Beef Tenderloin was on sale for $4/lb. This recipe only uses the center-cut portion of the tenderloin (the Chateaubriand cut). It’s double butterflied and stuffed with onions, mushrooms and spinach. It’s browned on the stovetop and finished in the oven until fully cooked. Then topped with Garlic-Mustard butter.

Problems:

The butcher did a terrible job, opting to maximize the weight rather than properly trim the tenderloin. So instead of a nice “trunk”-shaped tenderloin, it more closely resembled stairs. How was I going to double-butterfly? Solution: I had to cut the outside very thick and the inside very thin, then roll it up inside-out. Outcome: it all worked out. Instead of the desired swirl of stuffing, it had star-shaped stuffing.

The recipe calls for Cremini Mushrooms, which we did use today. But I think I prefer portabello mushrooms. It has a richer flavor.

Rating: 5-star.
Cost: $23 for 4 to 5 people (about 3-1/2 pounds).
How much work? Medium.
How big of a mess? Medium.
Start time 4:00 PM. Dinner time 6:30 PM.

BTW, this reeipe is a year or two old, so these don’t count towards my goal of 100 “new recipe”.

Instead of its swirl of stuffing, a terrible butcher make me switch to star-shaped stuffing instead. Not as evenly distributed, but just as tasty.